Toyota Material Handling Acquires Hoist Liftruck Manufacturing
Toyota Industries North America has acquired the assets of Hoist Liftruck Manufacturing LLC, effective April 1. The name of the new company is Hoist Material Handling Inc., and it will be managed directly by Toyota Material Handling USA in Columbus, Ind. The acquisition adds to Toyota’s already robust forklift product line.
Hoist Material Handling’s headquarters and 550,000-square-foot factory are in East Chicago, Ind., with sales offices in downtown Chicago. Hoist has nearly 25 years of experience manufacturing heavy-duty cushion tire and pneumatic forklifts, reach stackers, container handlers, and more, ranging in lift capacity from 7 to 57 tons.
Hoist Material Handling will be led by Dan Kossow, general manager and vice president; Bob Miller, vice president of engineering; Stu Jacover, vice president of sales; and Ryan Delaney, vice president of operations. Delaney, who spent the last six years as director of quality for The Raymond Corp., will join the Hoist Material Handling team in East Chicago, reporting to Tony Miller, senior vice president of operations and engineering for Toyota Industrial Equipment Manufacturing.
“After 25 years, we are honored to send Marty off with a sincere thank you,” said Kossow, in reference to Marty Flaska, founder of Hoist Liftrucks. “His entrepreneurial spirit has driven Hoist Liftruck from a once small business to one that now has the distinction of joining the industry leader in Toyota.”
Toyota has had an original equipment manufacturer agreement with Hoist for the manufacture of large-capacity forklifts under the Toyota Heavy Duty brand since 2015.
“This is the perfect next step in the expansion of our big truck strategy,” said Jeff Rufener, president of Toyota Material Handling USA. “Hoist has been a great manufacturer of heavy-duty equipment for years and brings a group of passionate and talented associates that will help us expand our product offerings as a full-line equipment supplier.”
About the Author
Michael Roth
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Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.